March 11, 2009

I have had many folks IM, email or phone me asking about a career in trucking. Is it a good time to become a driver? I was laid off and hear driving pays well. Should I do it? These and other similar questions often come my way.

Honestly, right now I would have to say no. First, the pay is generally no where as good as one thinks it is. Second, the hours are long. You are gone from your family and friends for weeks on end. This means missing the ballgame, birthdays, holidays and other events….as well as dinner with the family or tucking the little ones into bed. You “work” about 100 irregular hours a week and log about 60. Be real, anyone making out there knows you do. Work can range from driving, loading or waiting on dispatch for a load just to name a few. Third, the economy is just supporting the need for drivers at this time. Companies have hiring freezes on and go talk to a driver. Stop by a truck stop and have a chat. Buy him/her a cup of coffee and talk to them. Miles are down for most drivers. O/Os are hanging on by threads unless they are a rare, well established “lucky” one.

Continuing a string of unprecedented percentage decreases, the trucking
industry lost 33,400 employees on a seasonal basis in February — a 2.5 percent
drop from January, according to preliminary figures released March 6 by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The 33,400 trucking jobs lost in February represent 5.1 percent of the net
651,000 nonfarm payroll jobs lost. And the rate of decline in trucking
employment in February far exceeds that of the 0.5 percent employment decline in the
overall economy.

Trucking employment was down 1.8 percent in January, 1.3 percent in December
and just less than 1 percent in November. Each decline was the highest
recorded monthly percentage drop at the time except for April 1994 during a
Teamsters strike. Since October, trucking employment is down 6.4 percent.

Trucking employment is down 11.8 percent from its peak of 1.45 million in
January 2007, according to BLS figures.

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